


the prince and his not-quite knight in shining armor

by sheepxing



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Deephwi, Fantasy, I love Jinhwi, M/M, Tangled!AU, baejin and daehwi are whipped for each other, jisung is a mom, seonho's pining after guanlin idk, there might be minor character death idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-21 03:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12448317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepxing/pseuds/sheepxing
Summary: Look, Lee Daehwi just wanted to get away from the woman that claimed to be his mother and out of his towery prison, maybe see the floating lights in the sky that appeared every year on his birthday. He didn't agree to the madness that would ensue later.





	1. when will my life begin?

**Author's Note:**

> ngl the last time i tried to write chaptered fics it didn't work out too well but hey maybe this lil shortfic will turn out a little better!! plus, baejin and daehwi always have material for fic writers like me to write about lmao

⠀⠀ _Day 5386, January 28. Nothing really happened today: practiced my singing a bit, read the books again, cooked a little. I drew some nice pictures too, but they flew out the window via wind. Stupid wind. Sadly, yet again, Prince Charming has failed to show up again. Everything is boring and mundane, and I hope Prince Charming comes to rescue me soon and saves me from this tower._

⠀⠀Lee Daehwi sighed, brushing his fringe out of his eyes and staring down at the neat writing in his faded notebook. He slammed the book shut and slid it across the tile floor, rolling on this back and staring up at the white domed ceiling above him. How positively  _dull_ everything was. His Prince Charming was taking an awfully long time to come rescue him. What—did that prince not realize that Daehwi has  _places_ to go to and  _things_ to do? It's not like Daehwi could spend the rest of his life in the tall tower he called 'home.' Daehwi pointed a finger to the ceiling and began humming a soft tune, moving his finger to the beat.

⠀⠀He was fifteen years old, according to the paper stashed in a secret locked chest in his mother's study that read his name and date of birth, and he was about to turn sixteen relatively soon. His mother was gone often for reasons she would never specifically indulge him in but she always reassured that she was working in order to keep him fed and safe within the tower he was forced in. It was always sort of fishy, the way his mother kept certain things about his and her identities away from him, how she constantly urged him to stay in the tower and always told him stories about how absolutely horrid and dangerous the outside tower was, but Daehwi never had any reason  _not_ to believe her, especially since she kept him well fed and constantly supplied him with books or brushes among other things to keep himself busy. For years, this had quenched any curiosity or yearning Daehwi had to see the outside world, but he was (almost) sixteen now. He was  _bored_ and wanted to go outside and see what life was like outside of the few rooms he knew in the spiraling tower he called home.

⠀⠀There was always this one particular event that happened consistently every year on the night of his birthday—the Lantern Festival (well, he had no idea what the real name of the thing was so he just took a shot. It sounded legit enough, though). On this particular evening far away, hundreds and hundreds of floating lanterns would be released into the sky, high enough that Daehwi would be able to see it from the window of his room. It had fascinated him—the flying golden lights that never failed to dance in the sky for him on his birthday—and every year since he was five, he would ask his mother if  _just this_ one  _night_ she could take him to go see them up close. Every year, without fail, he was rejected coldly and promptly sent to his room with a set of books and brushes to forget about his idiotic request.

⠀⠀" _Lee Daehwi! Come and let the vine down!_ "

⠀⠀Daehwi groaned deeply in annoyance. He put his arm down and got back onto his feet, heavily trudging to the window and peeking out to see his raven-haired mother standing at the foot of the tower. She was fit with a rather tight red dress with a black cloak over it, her standard outfit—honestly it made him doubt her story of being just a simple merchant because  _what_ merchant in their right mind dresses like that?!—with a big wicker basket in arm as she smiled crookedly at him.

⠀⠀"Daehwi-ah," she crooned, "you're not going to make me stand out here all night, are you?" Daehwi fought the urge to roll his eyes. Ugh, he  _despised_ when she used that sickly sweet voice.

⠀⠀"Yes, Mother, just give me a second," he sighed, staring at the lone, thick green vine hanging from the top of the window. He took it into his hands and cleared his throat.

⠀⠀Daehwi began singing a song, starting softly before gradually crescendoing. It was a simple song, something about growing plants as large as giants, health, and the glowing sun shining down and giving life. As expected, the vine in his hand began to grow exponentially in length, growing and growing until it hit the forest floor at the bottom.

⠀⠀He rested his chin on his hand with a bored face as he watched his mother make her way up the vine at a surprisingly fast pace. Once she clambered her way to the top, she pulled out a knife and cut the vine back to its original length, the remainder of it hitting the ground with a dull thud against the earth. Dusting herself off, she drew herself up to her full height—a bit taller than Daehwi himself—before shoving her basket into his (un)awaiting arms and putting her hands on her hips.

⠀⠀"Bread and fish is in there," she said loftily before spinning on her heel and sashaying away to her room. Daehwi frowned after her, shaking his head. Well, that's where he got his dramatic flair from.

⠀⠀As Daehwi walked to the kitchen, he opened the wicker basket and scowled deeply at its contents. Inside, there was a tiny mackerel wrapped in paper and string and a third of a small loaf of bread, the ends clearly having been bitten off in two large bites. It wasn't like he was expecting a feast or anything, but bread and raw fish?  _Really_? And did she really have to eat his food too? He grumbled incoherently and took the poor excuse of a wrapped fish, tossing it into a box filled with cold water to keep it from spoiling. Like hell he was going to cook now—not when it was late and when he was still peeved that his own mother had eaten more than half of his food. Snatching the remnants of the bread, he tore the end off with his teeth and half-heartedly tossed the basket onto the table. Scratching his head, he plopped himself down onto a wooden stool by the table, dully chewing his bread as he picked the dirt out of his nails.

⠀⠀ _Prince Charming,_ Daehwi thought, staring blankly at nothing in particular,  _you better hurry up_ real  _soon._

⠀⠀He sat there for a while, eating in silence as he daydreamed about those magnificent lanterns lighting up the night sky.

⠀⠀"Dear Daehwi, please come here!" his mother's low voice suddenly warbled. Daehwi loudly mumbled his consent through a mouthful of bread, stuffing the small remains of his food into his mouth and hopping off the stool to beeline towards his mother's room.

⠀⠀Already, there were signs of wrinkles and graying in her hair forming that weren't there ten minutes ago. His mother sat on her rocking chair in front of a blazing fireplace, staring at her pale hands until she heard Daehwi's light footsteps, to which she looked up immediately and smiled. She pulled a small wooden stool in front of her, prompting Daehwi to sit on it.

⠀⠀"You know what to do, Daehwi," she said, holding her hand out. Daehwi took it gingerly into his own, clasping it tightly as he cleared his throat again.

⠀⠀" _Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine_." The words and soothing melody to the song he had been taught long ago flowed off his tongue with practiced ease.  " _Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine._

⠀⠀ _What once was mine._ "

⠀⠀Daehwi looked up at his mother, who looked considerably younger now after his song. He looked down at her hands then back up at her face. "So, Mother?" he asked slowly. She tilted her head.

⠀⠀"Yes, son?"

⠀⠀He started working his thumbs into the back of her hand. "The Lantern Festival is in two days—"

⠀⠀His mother sighed, cutting him off, and stood up from her chair, pulling Daehwi up with her. "Daehwi," she tutted patronizingly, "What have I said about leaving this tower?"

⠀⠀The hopeful smile that Daehwi had put on dropped immediately.  _Of course_. "That the outside world is dangerous," he muttered, bowing his head in disappointment.  _Every single time_ , he groaned mentally. His mother nodded and pinched his cheeks.

⠀⠀"Correct, little one!" she sang, patting him on the head and ushering him out of the room by the shoulders. "Time for bed now. Off you go! Don't speak of this Lantern Festival nonsense again, you hear me?" she asked playfully, though Daehwi could hear the silent threat in her voice. It sent a shiver down his spine every time—the invisible poison that laced her words.

⠀⠀"Yes, Mother."

⠀⠀"Good boy," she said with that creepily crooked smile of her's, promptly shutting the wooden door to her room with a loud  _bang_!

⠀⠀Daehwi stood there, glaring at the door with some wishful hope that his mighty stare might burn through the door and finally convince his mom to see  _reason_  but to no avail. He stood there a bit more but eventually gave up with a pout and headed to his dim room. Another year, another disappointment of nothing. Daehwi flopped onto his straw bed and heaved a deep sigh, staring up at his ceiling.

⠀⠀"I can't spend the rest of my life in this tower," he mumbled to himself, folding his hands behind his head. He shook his head and clenched his fist. "I'm not gonna spend my the rest of my life in this tower. I'm gonna get out of here, see what the outside world is for real," he forced through gritted teeth. "No more just wishful thinking that something will happen. I'm gonna get my ass in gear and go to that Lantern Festival my damn self."

⠀⠀Daehwi paused for a moment, then released his fist as the sudden adrenaline pumping in his system faded away. No, that was stupid. Heading out into the complete unknown was stupid and reckless, especially all by himself. He readjusted himself on his folded hands.

⠀⠀ _Damn it, Prince Charming, where are you?_

 


	2. a dawn of a new adventure

⠀⠀"Bow, dumbass," Woojin whispered harshly. Jinyoung snapped from his previous unfocused daze hurriedly bowed down ninety degrees, his face red as their captain surveyed them with a critical eye. Jinyoung grit his teeth as he felt his head get lightly swatted by his captain's blade (lightly being used as a general term because the blade was on the heavier side of the sword spectrum) but stood his ground as expected. There were a few more moments of quiet as the captain inspected the rest of the squad, but soon after the captain briskly ordered to stand.

⠀⠀"Alright, knights-to-be!" the captain boomed unnecessarily loudly (there were four people in this particular squadron and did not in any way warrant such explosive volume! Jinyoung was pretty sure the captain could make one of the stain glass windows in the main hall explode). He gestured behind him to an empty glass case atop a marble pedestal. "As you all know, the prince's crown was stolen not too long ago. As your final test before you are officially welcomed to knighthood, your task is to find his crown. Clues indicate that the thief went a little north of the city, so it's best to start there. I believe that this quest is relatively straight-forward, so unless there are any questions. . . ?" he asked, looking around. Guanlin's hand shot up. The captain signed. "Yes, Lai?"

⠀⠀"A crown isn't exactly the easiest thing to find," Guanlin explained worriedly, fumbling with the hilt of his sword. "What if we don't succeed, sir?"

⠀⠀The captain shrugged. "Well, you all will have to wait until another opportunity to prove yourselves arises. That might be next week, or by the time you're old and have three children." He shot the entire squad a yellow smile. "Best that you'd try to find that crown now."

⠀⠀"But—" Guanlin tried, only to be interrupted.

⠀⠀"You'll have help from one of the senior knights, fear not!" the captain declared with a flourish of his velvet cape (it was kind of ridiculous for a super senior knight to have a cape, but the captain insisted that it was necessary whenever this part of his eccentric fashion sense was taken a shot at). "Sir Jisung, our most kind knight, has volunteered to supervise you for the length of your quest to oversee your actions!"

⠀⠀Jinyoung frowned. Sir Jisung—"No, no! Call me Jisung-hyung! We're all friends here!" Jisung had insisted with a wave of his hands when Jinyoung had first met him—was certainly one of the happiest, bubbliest, most motherly knights he had ever seen. Jisung had a knack for medicinal herbs and healing and was even the leader of his own squad, but Jinyoung had heard of Jisung not being the best fighter. Apparently, according to Sir Daniel, Jisung had been absolutely horrid at sparring and slaying because he had such a kind heart. In fact, Jisung had barely passed his final evaluation by healing wounds the others in his squad had gained by trying to defeat a large troll that had been terrorizing the land and accidentally giving the troll a handful of poison mushrooms, killing it. Jinyoung—although he certainly enjoyed Jisung as company—would've preferred Sir Daniel, who was a master at swordplay and brute strength, or Sir Seongwoo, known for being agile, quick, and a great bluffer to get out of sticky situations.

⠀⠀"You'll start tomorrow at sunrise. Best rest up and carbo-load! Who knows when the next full meal will be?" the captain said with a wink before walking off through a door and into the main castle. As the rest of their tiny squadron left for the mess hall, Jinyoung let out a sigh he had been holding in, peaking the interest of Woojin.

⠀⠀"What's up?" Woojin asked curiously. Jinyoung shrugged.

⠀⠀"Just really want that knighthood," he said dully. "I know Jisung-hyung is a nice guy, but how can he supervise our fighting techniques if he sucks at them?" he complained with a wave of his hand. Woojin raised a brow, poking Jinyoung in the chest with his finger.

⠀⠀"Jinyoung, Jisung-hyung has been a knight longer than any of us have been training," the older pointed out, frowning. "Obviously, he'd know something that we don't even about swordplay." Ugh, why does Woojin have to be such a respectful person?

⠀⠀"Yeah, I know, but—"

⠀⠀"You say you know and you're still complaining?" Woojin asked disbelievingly. Jinyoung rolled his eyes, causing Woojin to smile his signature snaggletooth grin. "Jisung-hyung will be great," Woojin insisted. "He'll probably pack loads of food for us and will talk so much we'll never get bored." He slung his arm around Jinyoung's shoulder and started leading in the direction of the dining hall. "Now let's eat. Jihoon and Guanlin are probably waiting for us anyways."

⠀⠀Jinyoung struggled to remember why he wanted to become a knight in the first place as he let Woojin guide him along. He was seven when he saw a parade march through the town square market. It had been the king's birthday, he remembered, and all of the knights and bards in the castle went through the town and even held special events for the occasion.  
The bards had given little kids their instruments to fiddle around with or simply played a melody themselves, and the knights held mock-spar matches in between the stalls, gallantly yelling random fight words. Baby Jinyoung had been in such awe at the charisma of all of the knights—even without their armor they had been larger than life—that he had begged his mother to let him train to be a knight when he became of age. And here he was, ten years later, about to be knighted. Well, at least he hoped he was about to be knighted—like Guanlin said, a stolen crown wasn't exactly the easiest thing to find in the world.

⠀⠀He plopped down at the wooden long table in the loud, dim mess hall, Woojin and Jihoon on his right and left respectively. Across from them were Guanlin and Seonho, hugging tightly (really, it was more Seonho clinging onto Guanlin for dear life but Seonho always insisted that the love was mutual). Woojin shot a look towards Seonho as he reached for a small loaf of bread.

⠀⠀"Seonho, shouldn't you be with your squad now?" he asked with a quirked brow. Seonho let out a whine and snuggled into Guanlin's long arm even further, drawing a deep sigh from Guanlin himself. Jinyoung hid his smile in his cup as he took a sip of cider.

⠀⠀"I needed to say goodbye to Guanlin-hyung, though!" Seonho complained, pouting. "What if you all get eaten by a troll or something? I must bid my farewells to my one true love—"

⠀⠀"Nope! Not your true love, we've been over this, Seonho," Guanlin groaned as he pulled his arm away from the younger with minor difficulties (Seonho had quite the grip for his age).

⠀⠀"Ugh!" Seonho huffed, propping his chin on his hand. "It's not fair that you hyungs get to go on a quest for your final examination! You're probably gonna have to go slay a dragon or rescue a maiden or something super cool like that—"

⠀⠀Jihoon chuckled, reaching over and ruffling Seonho's hair. "Kid, you still have a year before you even have to worry about the final exam," he said with a wry smile. "Also, we're definitely not gonna go slay a dragon or anything remotely cool like that, so fear not," he said, stuffing a piece of turkey into his mouth. Seonho sighed.

⠀⠀"Just, like, it's gonna be a group project right? And almost everyone is barely passing the theory tests with only a few more passing the physical ones," he explained morosely, his head hanging low. "I'm just gonna end up carrying everyone else because they're so incompetent. Ugh."

⠀⠀"What about Little Woojin? Or Samuel?" Jinyoung asked, pointing his fork in the general direction of the rest of Seonho's squadron. He knew that the handsome son of the famous trader Arredondo and the babyish-faced boy were quite the trainees for their age from Seonho's constant complains about their overachievements. Seonho scowled and crossed his arms.

⠀⠀"That Woojin is just abnormally good for his age. And freaking Samuel is good at everything," he grumbled. Seonho shook his head and looked around at everyone at the table. "You guys are going with Jisung-hyung for your quest, right?" he asked. Woojin nodded.

⠀⠀"Yeah. Though, this one right here—" Woojin poked Jinyoung in the shoulder—"doesn't want him because he doesn't think Jisung is qualified," he said offhandedly, not paying attention to Jinyoung's cold glare. Seonho gasped.

⠀⠀"Hyung! How could you?!" he half-yelled, his eyes wide as saucers. Jinyoung could feel his face start to burn from all of the unwanted attention Seonho was attracting. "Jisung-hyung is so cool! He can heal literally almost everything and is so smart and nice!"

⠀⠀Fuck you, Woojin. "You don't think I know how nice he is?" Jinyoung snapped, poking his food. "He's the happiest person I've ever met. It's just that he's not that good at combat or pathfinding, according to Sir Seongwoo," he mumbled. Seonho adamantly shook his head.

⠀⠀"Sir Seongwoo must've been messing with you because Jisung-hyung is one of the best leaders I've ever seen," he said, serious. "Also, Jisung might not be that handy with a sword, but man—he is a mean shot with a longbow! Hyung, it's insane!" Seonho added excitedly, stars sparkling in his eyes.

⠀⠀Jinyoung sighed. "Alright, I'll take your word for it."

⠀⠀The group of five ate and talked for the next couple of hours (really, it was Seonho doing most of the talking and eating—that boy was such a pig) until they all sat back, stomachs full and satisfied with the piles of food they had eaten. Jinyoung got out of his seat, the rest of his squad following after him lethargically. Seonho loudly shouted goodbye after them and sent a few flying kisses towards Guanlin. Said boy made a face as he walked.

⠀⠀"You know how long that kid has pined after you, Lin," Jihoon said, jerking a thumb back towards Seonho who was still somehow eating. Guanlin shook his head.

⠀⠀"I've known him since we were young, hyung. I care for him, sure, but be attracted to him?" he explained with a sigh. Woojin looked over his shoulder to the now-lonesome boy at the table. He looked back over at Guanlin and raised a brow.

⠀⠀"I mean, he's a pretty boy," Woojin said nonchalantly, hands in his pant pockets. "Real smart. The bards in the castle say he's an amazing musician too."

⠀⠀Jinyoung wasn't quite sure if it was the lighting from the glowing lanterns in the dim hall, but he could've sworn he saw a brush of red along Guanlin's cheeks. Oooh, interesting. "Sure, he's cute, I guess," Guanlin grunted, "Samuel is too, though. He also doesn't eat like there's a black hole in his stomach."

⠀⠀Jihoon shot a glare at him. "Sam is basically a baby; leave him out of it," he said peevishly. Guanlin rolled his eyes.

⠀⠀"Hyung. Stop acting like he's your son," Guanlin muttered dully, smirking when Jihoon began spluttering randomly.

⠀⠀"Samuel is just a baby! You know how shy he is and how awkward he is around new people, Guanlin—"

⠀⠀"Jihoon, shut up. You're embarrassing, seriously," Woojin groaned. Jinyoung nodded in agreement as they all walked into their small room, Jihoon sending a sharp glare to Woojin immediately.

⠀⠀Swiftly changing into their pajamas, they all bid each other good night and sweet dreams before blowing the candle out and conking out for the night. Jinyoung, however, stared up at the ceiling of their room, hands folded on his stomach. This dream of his that he had been holding onto for ten years could come true any day now! Just thinking about it made him giddy with excitement, a bright smile extending on his face. Butterflies flitted around in his stomach as he clutched his feather pillow tightly to his chest, on the verge of squealing like some of the girls in the town. Jinyoung wouldn't allow himself to be caught dead acting like this, but the others were asleep now. Who cared? He rolled onto his side, facing the stone wall, valiantly fighting the smile away but to no avail. His head was spinning—maybe from the amount of food, but Jinyoung chose to believe it was from his excitement. Tomorrow was going to be the day that he'd be dreaming of: the day where he'd valiantly slay a dragon or rescue a damsel in distress and come home victorious! Yep, he let out a tiny squeal of happiness at that one.

⠀⠀"Jinyoung, shut up and go to sleep. Who are you? Hyungseob?" Woojin tiredly mumbled, rolling onto his stomach to sleepily glare at Jinyoung across from him. Jinyoung felt his face heat up in embarrassment—No, Woojin heard that?!—as he quietly apologized and settled into his bed. The butterflies in his stomach seemed to flutter around even more now as he folded his hands behind his head and drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so this was originally supposed to be connected to the first chapter then realized it felt a bit disjointed i guess? starting next chapter, though, i'm gonna start combining both povs bc paths are gonna start crossing and yeah!!! hope you enjoyed reading, leave a comment if you did! i love reading comments almost as much as i love lee daehwi ;)


	3. prince-knight collision

⠀⠀" _7AM, the usual morning lineup_." There were light, slow steps along the wooden floor as the boy fumbled for the straw broom leaning against the wall. " _Start on the chores and sweep till the floor's all clean,_ " Daehwi sang softly, sweeping the floor clean according to the song. The golden sun was beginning to peek above the horizon, casting the cliffs surrounding the tower in a warm, orange-ish glow. Birds sang their songs and and the chilly winter morning breeze blew through the air, causing Daehwi to shiver in his thin, white cotton shirt. He tugged at the sleeves, grimacing. Ah, it was too cold. Daehwi ran to start up the fireplace in an effort to quench the cold.

⠀⠀Now with a toasty fire crackling in the stone fireplace, Daehwi continued his daily morning chores, considerably warmer now. He mumbled the next lyrics of the song—" _Polish and wax, do laundry and mop and shine up_ "—as he proceeded to clean the two accessible floors of his tower. Unlike the Rapunzel in his song, it sadly did not take fifteen minutes to clean everything. It was more like four hours, and by the end of it, Daehwi was slumped in his mother's wicker rocking chair with aching arms and legs and a throbbing headache.

⠀⠀He threw his head back and groaned deeply. Even more painful than the soreness now deep in his bones was the silent boredom he now suffered. He had read every single book in the bookshelves, scrubbed every single inch of the tower until he could almost see his reflection in his surroundings, and had sung every single song he knew. What to do now?

⠀⠀ _Maybe I should just take a nap and wait for Mother to back home_ , Daehwi thought wistfully as the rocking chair creaked back and forth. Eventually, he sighed and reluctantly pulled himself out of the chair and stretched, wincing when he heard a sharp crack in his back. Then, he walked out to the kitchen and pulled an apple from a basket on the counter, mindlessly chewing on it. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Daehwi's mind began to wander aimlessly as he stared off into nothing. The Lantern Festival was tomorrow, wasn't it? He let out a deep sigh, taking another bite from the apple. It was going to be another sad year of him forlornly staring out the window at the glowing, flying lanterns in the sky, huh? Lee Daehwi—destined to grow old and rot away in this tower till the end of his days.  _Fun_.

⠀⠀A bit of time went by. Then a little bit more. Daehwi eventually resorted to dancing about in the main room, jumping and spinning to his own voice (because, let's be real—he was an  _amazing_  singer). He tested how high he could sing, even played a few little ditties on the piano in the corner experimentally. Boring, boring, boring, utterly and completely  _boring._  Daehwi then plopped himself down onto the floor, pouting.

⠀⠀Suddenly, he heard something. . . odd. Out of place. It wasn't the crackling of the fire in the fireplace, nor the singing birds, nor the melodic humming of his own voice. It sounded strangely like. . . people? Daehwi frowned. That was strange; even though he stopped believing his mother's occasionally preposterous stories about the rest of " _wicked_ " human kind, actual people never came near the tower to test this hypothesis. Daehwi got onto his knees, then to his feet, hurrying to his open window and peering down curiously to see what this new noise was.

⠀⠀Lo and behold, there was a small group of people sprinting into the clearing. Panting, they eventually came to a stop in front of the tower before they all either doubled-over or flopped down lifelessly onto the grass. Daehwi counted them fervently—five of them. There were five of these people, Daehwi saw. They were boys—now on his turf, exhausted. At the sight of this, Daehwi wasn't sure whether he should stay and strike up a conversation or run away to his room and lock himself in until his mother came and dealt with them. Honestly, he was leaning on the latter—he was never the boldest person—but, Daehwi could see a light red and blue insignia on their sleeves, and swords on the ground next to them. One even had a bow and a quiver of arrows. Their clothes obviously weren't made from cheap material, too. Daehwi felt a breath hitch in his chest. This group of people obviously worked for some sort of royalty, along with the various weapons and half-full bags now laid on earth, so maybe. . . ?

⠀⠀ _No way_. Had his knight (or apparently  _knights_ ) finally come to rescue him from his eternal prison? Daehwi couldn't keep that budding smile off his face as he squealed quietly to himself. Was this even real life? He pinched his arm, yelping at the pain, then looked out of the window and down to the ground. Yep, they were still there.  _Okay, you got this, Daehwi. You can interact with other human beings._

⠀⠀"Hey!" Daehwi yelled out of his window, stifling a laugh when the only boy on his feet looked up so fast he fell backwards onto the grassy green. Daehwi waved, resting his chin in his other hand. "What brings you here to my tower?" he asked with a tilt of his head. The same guy—maybe the leader?—scrambled back onto his feet and cupped his hands around his mouth.

⠀⠀"Hello!" the guy shouted, a bright and pretty smile on his face. "Who are you?"

⠀⠀Daehwi inclined his head slightly in a mock-formal manner. "Lee Daehwi. Nice to meet you!"

⠀⠀"I'm Sir Yoon Jisung, and same to you!"  _Jisung_ said with his own happy nod. Jisung seemed to look the tower up and down before putting his hands on his hips and staring at Daehwi curiously. "So, uh. . . we just encountered some, erm,  _complications_ and we're both tired and lost a pretty fair amount of our rations. I was kind of wondering if we could, like, just have any food you might have up there?" he asked sheepishly, rubbing his nape. Daehwi frowned tightly. This wasn't what he was expecting. Wasn't this group of knights supposed to whisk him away from this awful tower for good? Why the hell were they asking to just take his food and fucking  _sleep_?

⠀⠀Jisung seemed to read his face because he hurriedly said, red, "I just realized how weird that sounded and I'm  _so_ sorry. You don't have to if you want to. I wish I could explain but it's sort of a long story? We're just really exhausted, as you can see." He gestured at the other four boys around him, all lying on the grass facedown. Jisung ran a hand through his black hair and sighed, quickly squatting down and shaking the shoulder of one.

⠀⠀"The thing is," Daehwi called down before shrinking back a bit. Should he reveal his magically musical prowess? The stories of the rest of the evil mankind and the dangers outside of their cliff-shielded sector? Daehwi nervously chewed on his lips, fervently looking between his room and back down at the group of guys at the foot of the tower. The gears in his head turned slowly as his eyes finally locked onto the small painting on the plain wall—a picture of those beautiful glowing lanterns against the darkness of the night sky. These guys worked for royalty. Thus, they must know  _something_ about the Lantern Festival, right?

⠀⠀He cleared his throat and looked down at the group. Now, a few of them were getting back up onto their feet. "I have a deal to make with you guys," he said, putting on one of his mother's trader faces. All five of the boys trained their eyes on him. "Well, here's the thing: I've never left this tower before, and there's this thing I've always seen outside of my window. Once every year, there's always a bunch of lanterns floating in the sky. Do you guys know about it?" Daehwi asked. Jisung nodded immediately.

⠀⠀"Yeah. That's our king and queen's Lantern Festival. It's supposed to help the lost prince return back to the kingdom after he was kidnapped some thirteen years ago," Jisung explained, shrugging. Daehwi's eyes widened slightly.  _Oh_ ,  _so it's_ actually _called the Lantern Festival. And a lost prince? How interesting._

⠀⠀"Well, I'll give you food if you promise to take me back to your kingdom to see the lanterns."

⠀⠀One of the other boys, tall and deep-voiced, shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Bring the grub and just come along." Another one hit him in the shoulder admonishingly.

⠀⠀"You can't just accept him into the group! What if he's a spy or a murderer?!" the boy, a bit shorter and leaner than the first, snapped before fearfully looking between Daehwi and his friend, and Daehwi laughed.

⠀⠀"I mean, I'm sixteen today and, once again, have never left this tower. I think I'm pretty safe." He shrugged. "Also, I  _do_ have food! Just take me to your kingdom so I can see the pretty lights. It's not rocket science, you know."

⠀⠀The first pointed at Daehwi. "See? He has food. He's probably fine, hyung."

⠀⠀"This is why a sensible person like Jisung-hyung is in charge and  _you're_   _not_ , Guanlin—"

⠀⠀"Alright! Bring the food down and you can come along!" Jisung called up, that same cheery smile on his face, the lean one staring at him in shock. Daehwi smiled.  _Wow, he's_ awesome _. That leader has more enthusiasm than I could ever have_ , Daehwi mentally whistled. He gave an  _okay_ sign and hurried to prepare a basket of food. His head was spinning just a bit and he bit back another high-pitched squeal. No  _fucking_  way—he was  _actually_ going to get out of this forsaken tower! Daehwi had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't some waking dream as he stuffed rolls of bread and various fruits into one of his mother's wicker baskets. Once it was almost too heavy to lift with one hand, Daehwi ran to his mother's closet to dig one of her old black cloaks out, and some of her boots as well. Thankfully, they fit like a glove, and he scrambled back to the open window and poked his head out. He saw the five boys standing together in a vaguely-circular shape, discussing something quietly.

⠀⠀"Guys? I have the food!" Daehwi shouted, watching as the boys immediately broke apart and looked up at him. Jisung and the tall boy—Guanlin, was it?—waved at him, one noticeably more excitedly than the other (take a swing at who it was). Daehwi waved back, smiling brightly.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Jisung looked up and down the tower with a small frown. He pointed at Daehwi, confused. "So, how are you going to get down. . . ?"

⠀⠀Daehwi winked. "Don't worry. I got this," he called, taking hold of the vine outside his door and pulling it inside a bit, then clearing his throat.

⠀⠀In a minute or so, the vine was hitting the forest floor again. Daehwi slid the basket handle over his wrist before firmly grabbing the now-thick vine and hoisting himself out of the window, dangling precariously for a moment before gaining his footing and slowly sliding down. Eyes wide and stomach rolling, butterflies flitting around wildly within. His head swam as he made his way down, foot by foot. Daehwi couldn't believe this was happening. He was going to the Lantern Festival and escaping from this  _stupid_  tower! How the  _fuck_ was he managing to do it so  _coolly_ like he didn't feel he was about to fucking explode like a firecracker from excitement?! It was a miracle that he hadn't fallen yet because  _he_  had never been the one sliding down—

⠀⠀ _Damn it, I spoke too soon._

⠀⠀Daehwi screamed as he fell, gracefully flailing his arms around like a stupid baby bird with fruits and loaves of bread tumbling out of his basket and down to the ground with him. Thankfully, he was falling from a relatively low height—maybe eight feet off of the ground. (Wouldn't be much of a story if he had just died there, would it?)

⠀⠀Landing on  _something_ , Daehwi groaned in pain, his hands immediately flying back to his shoulders to massage them. He sat up and looked around him, seeing the knights staring at him. Jisung's eyes were wide, jaw dropped before he frantically reached for one of the knapsacks on the ground and rummaging through it. Guanlin(?) was laughing, doubled over and all, and the other two unknown boys seemed to be fighting down amused smiles. Daehwi, still incredibly sore and somewhat irritated, raised a brow.

⠀⠀"What?" he asked. One of the unnamed boys grinned mischievously, showing a sharp snaggletooth, before pointing below him. Daehwi looked down confusedly and saw— _oh my god, I fucking landed on someone._

⠀⠀Daehwi scrambled up, practically screeching his apologies because  _oh my god, is he okay?!_ He slipped an arm under the unfortunate boy, brows knitted together in worry as he propped the boy's head up onto his leg. He looked up at Jisung who had pulled out a canteen of sorts and was now hurrying towards the boy in question.

⠀⠀"Jinyoung? Hey, Bae Jinyoung!" Jisung placed a hand on the said  _Jinyoung's_ chest, which was thankfully rising and falling at a relatively normal pace. Jisung opened Jinyoung's mouth a bit and poured some water in, rubbing the boy's chest a little. It didn't really do anything to curb Daehwi's immense worry, but nevertheless, Jinyoung's eyes fluttered open shortly after. Jinyoung groaned and shut his eyes again.

⠀⠀"Ow."

⠀⠀"Oh my god! Are you okay?!" Daehwi shrieked again, slamming a hand over his mouth when he saw Jinyoung visibly wince. Jinyoung worked his way up onto his arms and sighed, eyes still squeezed closed.

⠀⠀"You're loud. And you crushed me," he said dully.

⠀⠀"I'm sorry!" Daehwi loudly stage-whispered. He laid his hand over Jinyoung's, staring at him worriedly until Jinyoung returned with a sharp, disgruntled look of his own. In a second, however, Jinyoung's mouth was slightly agape and his face was slowly reddening. Daehwi frowned, taking Jinyoung's hand into his own and squeezing. Why was this guy acting like this, and why was he suddenly so red like that? Was that normal? "Um, Jinyoung. . . ?" he began slowly. "Are you okay?"

⠀⠀Jinyoung nodded, clearing his throat as he ripped his hand away from Daehwi's tight hold. He rubbed his nape. "Uh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay."

⠀⠀Daehwi sighed in relief. Woah, that would've been bad if he had accidentally killed him. One of the other guys—Snaggletooth Boy, Daehwi decided he'd call him—tapped him on the shoulder and presented him his basket with all of the fallen food back in it, albeit significantly messier. Daehwi smiled and thanked Snaggletooth Boy, taking the basket.

⠀⠀"What's up, Jinyoung?" the other unnamed boy laughed, crouching down and pinching Jinyoung's cherry red cheek. Jinyoung grumbled something under his breath before slowly getting back onto his feet.

⠀⠀"Put a sock in it, Jihoon."

⠀⠀Daehwi paid no mind to that and clapped excitedly. He spun around once,  _twice_. Wow—everything was so new and different now that he was outside the tower! The sun was warmer, the birds were singing louder, and the grass—oh, the grass! He reached down to touch it and it was one of the softest things he ever felt (an exaggeration, truly, but his excitement was getting the best of him.) Holy fuck, he just wanted to burst into a song about how beautiful everything was, and how completely free he felt.

⠀⠀He heard Jisung laugh behind him as he gazed past the vine-covered hole in the cliff beyond his tower. It was a sort of laugh that was like, ' _You're being stupid but it's cute,_ ' and Daehwi started laughing along with him because  _yes_ ; he was definitely acting silly and ridiculous, and on any other day he wouldn't be caught  _dead_ acting like this. But who cared, especially on a day as glorious as this? Daehwi took a deep breath of the crisp, fresh winter air before he turned to the group.

⠀⠀"Can we go? Can we go?! Oh, please, oh, please, can we go to the town now?!" Daehwi begged, rushing up to Jisung with the most hopeful smile. Jisung chuckled and nodded.

⠀⠀"Yeah, sure. We can go."

⠀⠀Daehwi cheered, and Snaggletooth Boy smirked at him. "You're a cheery one, aren't you?" he asked playfully. Daehwi shrugged, twirling around one more time.

⠀⠀"You'd be as excited as me if you were leaving a prison cell like that for the first time in your whole life. Trust me," he assured. Snaggletooth Boy laughed, his arms crossed. The  _Jihoon_  character stuck his tongue out at Snaggletooth Boy and swatted him in the head.

⠀⠀"Yeah, what are you, Woojin? Some kind of idiot?" Jihoon mocked. Snaggletooth Boy—Woojin—scowled deeply before smacking Jihoon in the shoulder. Eventually, it turned out into an all-out wrestling match, the two boys pushing each other to the ground while calling out random insults to each other.

⠀⠀"Nerd!"

⠀⠀"Half-wit!"

⠀⠀"Oaf!"

⠀⠀"Dumbass!"

⠀⠀"That's offensive!"

⠀⠀"That's the  _point_!"

⠀⠀Daehwi leaned over to Guanlin, a wide amused smile on his face. "Does this happen a lot?" he asked curiously, laughing as the two started pulling each others' short hair. Guanlin, fighting down his own raucous laughter, nodded.

⠀⠀" _All_  the time. You're in for a treat traveling with us."

⠀⠀Jisung eventually tore the two apart, scolding them like a mother to two disobedient children for a second. He looked at Daehwi and smiled apologetically. "These two are Park Woojin and Park Jihoon. Not related. This'll be happening a lot, so I'm sorry in advance." Daehwi shook his head, grinning.

⠀⠀"No, not at all! It was actually really entertaining. Those two are funny." He watched Jihoon and Woojin fist-bump, smirking at each other.

⠀⠀Woojin pointed at Guanlin. "That's Lai Guanlin," he explained. "He's the baby of our group, and he also plays a mean tune on the piano. He also has a childhood sweetheart named Seonho back in the city—"

⠀⠀"Hyung, I don't like Seonho! I've told you that!" Guanlin cut Woojin off, face red. Woojin raised a brow but shrugged.

⠀⠀"Whatever you say." He pointed at Jinyoung, then he frowned. "Hey, Bae Jinyoung! How long have you been staring at Daehwi here?" he asked, surprised.

⠀⠀Daehwi turned around, seeing Jinyoung's head ducked low to his chest. Woojin furrowed his brows together in confusion before shaking his head. "Okay, doesn't matter. The one that you almost squashed like a gnat is Bae Jinyoung. He's kinda quiet but he's a great guy and really nice most of the time. Sometimes he's an ass though."

⠀⠀"You put a sock in it, too, Woojin."

⠀⠀Said boy jerked a thumb towards Jinyoung. "See? An ass, I tell you."

⠀⠀Daehwi laughed. His chest felt warm, meeting all these new people, and even simply laying eyes on Jinyoung. He looked back at the boy and waved, smiling when Jinyoung shyly waved back.

⠀⠀"You wanna get going now that you know everyone?" Jisung asked. He smiled when Daehwi excitedly nodded, then clapped. "Alright, let's go!"

 

* * *

 

 

⠀⠀For as well as the quest started out, Jinyoung didn't expect it to end up as horribly as it did.

⠀⠀The whole squad woke up at the break of dawn like they were supposed to. The head chefs had prepared backpacks full of food, water, and a change of clothes along with a hefty breakfast. Jisung had come in twenty minutes early, according to him, with his own knapsack of medicinal herbs and smile that could've out-shined the sun. It had been a cloudless, crisp morning with tweeting birds and the early bustle of the castle workers. Everything was going swimmingly when they departed.

⠀⠀They had been walking for several hours or so, Jisung practically exploding with bad jokes and stories about many of the senior knights. While his legs were slowly starting to feel more and more like lead, it was enjoyable traveling with Jisung and Jinyoung was smiling or laughing for a majority of their trip (he was pretty sure Guanlin was going to have back problems in the future from the amount of times the youngest bent over to scream-laugh). Suddenly, they had stumbled upon a wide-mouthed cave.

⠀⠀Guanlin had the absolute fucking  _genius_ idea of going in, in hopes of finding the crown. "You know how there's always a monster in some deep dark cave that's guarding the treasure?" the youngest had asked with that bright, innocent gummy smile he had. "Well, maybe that's where the crown is!"

⠀⠀Jinyoung shook his head. He had a bad,  _bad_ feeling about that cave and he shuffled from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Knight 101, Linlin. Never use one of those stories as a guideline, remember?" he said. Guanlin pouted, automatically summoning Jisung to his side to coo over him.

⠀⠀"Well, we don't have anything to lose, do we? Might as well," Jihoon chimed in with his arms crossed. Jinyoung was about to voice out his lack of consent to this plan but was immediately shoved to the side by a marching Woojin.

⠀⠀" _Onwards to glory_!" he yelled, rallying both Guanlin and Jihoon behind him. As they half-charged into the cave, Jinyoung deeply sighed. Wow, his friends were embarrassing idiots. He looked over at Jisung, who was smiling fondly.  _Weird_.

⠀⠀"They're fools," Jinyoung said with brows drawn together in confusion. "What's so funny?"

⠀⠀Jisung shook his head, grinning. "They remind me of my squad. Just complete, total idiots that have no brains," he laughed. He slung an arm around Jinyoung's shoulder and began pulling him into the cave after the rest of their squad. "I have some stories about them I can tell you all later. They're better than all of my jokes  _combined_!" Jisung cheered.

⠀⠀"That's not saying much," Jinyoung snorted. "All of your jokes are horrible." He laughed when Jisung gasped and swatted him in the shoulder.

⠀⠀Eventually, they ran to catch up with the other three and were now rather deep into the cave, only to find them all huddled together and whispering fervently between each other. Jisung frowned, walking towards them.

⠀⠀"Hey, guys—!"

⠀⠀"Shhhh!" Jihoon hushed, his sparkling eyes full of fear. He pointed towards something a little further in the darkness of the cave. Jisung squinted a bit, taking his bow from his back and nocking an arrow.

⠀⠀"Hang back," Jisung ordered softly, suddenly sounding every bit of the leader he actually was. It was almost disturbing to see Jisung slip into his leader role all of a sudden, but Jinyoung did exactly what Jisung said. Jinyoung clung onto a shaking Guanlin, peering over the younger's shoulder as Jisung stepped slowly into the darkness. What had the others seen that had scared them? Or what made Jisung decide that it was dire enough that he had pulled out his weapon?

⠀⠀Jinyoung squinted. He had to stifle his small gasp when he saw it: a Longhorn Dragon, sleeping in its nest with little puffs of smoke emanating from its two nostrils. The Longhorn dragon was known for its long, golden horn that it would use to kill and its rather fast running speed for its lumbering size (for reference, it was about the size of five shop stalls from the marketplace). Unluckily for them, this one seemed to fully grown, its golden horn gleaming with the little light that was making its way from the entrance.  _Great_.

⠀⠀He looked off to the side and found a set of bones picked clean with a leather satchel hanging off of a steep stalagmite, leaving an extremely ominous pit-feeling in his stomach. Jinyoung wracked his head—were the Longhorns of the human-eating variety? Thinking back to his textbook in class, he gulped.  _Today couldn't possibly get any shittier._

⠀⠀He felt Guanlin fumble for his hand and he internally sighed as he grabbed it and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. How did he know that this wasn't a good idea? He should've stopped them while he still had the chance.

⠀⠀There was a slight metallic clinking off to the right. Jisung appeared back in front of front of them, holding onto a dusty, dirty crown. He was smiling.

⠀⠀"Guys, I think this is the Prince's crown!" he murmured excitedly, wiping off the dirt from the front of the crown. Woojin and Jihoon reached for it, whispering softly in between themselves. They were probably arguing who got to hold the crown, knowing them. Guanlin timidly stepped forward to touch the crown himself.

⠀⠀The dragon suddenly puffed out some smoke straight into Guanlin's face, sending Guanlin into a choked coughing fit. Jinyoung rushed to cover Guanlin's mouth to stifle the noise but froze in his place when he heard the low rumble in the dragon's throat.  _No. No, no, no, no, no. Please don't wake up._

⠀⠀Of course, Fate decided that he had enough good luck for one day and decided that now was the time to mess with him.

⠀⠀Woojin and Jihoon's arguing immediately ceased as they were suddenly fixated on the waking dragon. Jisung backed up slowly, pushing against the rest of them. The words he was trying to get out seemed to be caught in his throat as he pounded against their chests with a closed fist. The dragon was starting to get onto its feet when Jisung finally hoarsely screamed out his words:

⠀⠀"Run.  _Run_!"

⠀⠀The dragon roared, shaking the entire cavern and sending a few rocks loose from the ceiling. Woojin grabbed onto Jihoon's hand and began sprinting away, dragging Jihoon behind him and letting go of the crown. Guanlin hurriedly reached down to retrieve the dropped crown until Jisung shoved him towards the exit into a running start.

⠀⠀"Leave it! It's not worth it! Now,  _run_!" Jisung ordered, nocking his arrow and firing it behind him. Guanlin still seemed to be stupefied but nodded and ran as fast as his long legs could carry him. Jinyoung ran alongside him as Jisung followed closely behind, shooting arrows back towards the dragon.

⠀⠀Thankfully, the dragon was of the non-fire-breathing variety and Jisung was a deadly shot with his longbow, just as Seonho had promised. He was shooting in the face and legs, doing his best to hinder the dragon as much as he possibly could while everyone ran for the exit, and eventually they all made it out. However, so did the dragon.

⠀⠀"Where do we go?!" Woojin shouted, glancing over his shoulder. Jisung fervently looked around until he pointed towards a low opening in the cliffs, covered by a series of surprisingly vibrant hanging green vines.

⠀⠀"Duck into there!" Jisung ordered. Jinyoung sprinted faster and faster, Guanlin panting beside him as they all ran towards the vines. They all ran through them, Jinyoung praying that they wouldn't end up in a dead-end.

⠀⠀Miraculously, the vine-covered passage opened up into a wide, grassy clearing, completely surrounded by rocky cliffs. There was a tall tower in the center and a bubbling brook off into the right. Jinyoung risked a look behind him and found that the opening was too small for the dragon to fit through. They were safe.  _Oh, thank god_.

⠀⠀They all shrugged off the bags from their shoulders and flopped down onto the ground, exhausted. Jihoon and Woojin were backpack-less. Maybe they had shrugged them off during the run. Panting, heaving, Jinyoung's lungs seemed to be on fire. He couldn't decide whether his head was too full of information to properly process or if his head was just completely blank after the whole ordeal. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply in an effort to control his racing heart.

⠀⠀"Hey!" a pleasant-sounding voice shouted from far above. It piqued his interest, but not enough for him to open his eyes and actually see what was going on. He did, however, vaguely hear Jisung start up a conversation with the mysterious stranger. Yeah, he was just going to let the leader handle it.

⠀⠀Eventually, Jinyoung found the strength in his muscles to get onto his feet. His head was finally beginning to process what was happening—something along the stranger wanting to. . . come along? No, no, that was a hundred percent  _not_ safe.

⠀⠀"Yeah, sure. Bring the grub and just come along," Guanlin was saying. He smacked the younger in the shoulder for the ridiculous statement.

⠀⠀"You can't just accept him into the group! What if he's a spy or a murderer?!" Jinyoung snapped, looking in between Guanlin and the miniscule figure in the window of the tower that was too small to completely distinguish. The person laughed and said how he was sixteen years old and harmless. Guanlin pointed at the person.

⠀⠀"See? He has food. He's probably fine, hyung."

⠀⠀Jinyoung was ready to blow a fuse. He had already gone through one of Guanlin's horribly thought-out and shitty plans and there was no way in  _hell_ that he was going to go through another one. "This is why a sensible person like Jisung-hyung is in charge and  _you're_   _not_ , Guanlin—" he began, peeved.

⠀⠀"Alright! Bring the food down and you can come along!" Jisung called, smiling brightly. Jinyoung stared at him, his jaw slack with shock.  _No fucking way._

⠀⠀As the figure left the window, Jinyoung pulled everyone into a loose circle. "Are you out of your minds?!" he hissed, glaring at  Jisung and Guanlin. He gestured towards the window. "We can't just let someone—"

⠀⠀"—Daehwi," Jihoon supplied helpfully.

⠀⠀"Yeah, whatever. We can't just let  _Daehwi_ join us all of a sudden!" he explained frantically. Jisung planted his hands on Jinyoung's shoulders.

⠀⠀"Jinyoung, don't worry about it, okay?" Jisung asked. He put a hand to his chest. "I'll take the consequences if there are any. I'll never let any harm come to you guys, alright?" he said gently. Jinyoung still wanted to argue and convince the others to see reason, but Jisung's warm eyes and soft tone certainly undid those feelings. He felt uneasy but eventually begrudgingly conceded.

⠀⠀"Fine."

⠀⠀Jisung smiled and ruffled Jinyoung's hair fondly. "Thanks, Jinyoung."

⠀⠀Soon, the boy was slowly sliding down a vine that seemed to come from nowhere. Jinyoung was sighing as he watched. How long was the guy going to take? He was taking an awfully long time—wait, why was he suddenly coming down so fast. . . ?

⠀⠀ _Oomph!_

⠀⠀Jinyoung quietly groaned under the weight of another person, his limbs losing all of their strength again.  _Just my fucking luck_. First, he got chased out of cave and lost the goal of his quest, and now he was getting crushed like a bug by this new kid that wanted to go watch the Lantern Festival back home.

⠀⠀This person was also loud. As the boy got off of him and apologized profusely, all Jinyoung could feel was the throbbing headache in his skull. "You're loud. And you crushed me, " he said dully, now sitting up on his arms. The boy continued to apologize, now taking Jinyoung's hand. Jinyoung looked up, prepared to shoot the boy a sharp death glare until he laid eyes upon the boy's face.

⠀⠀He was about his own age and cute. Like, really cute. Mind-numbingly, cheek-pinching, coo-worthy cute. He had jet black hair and a messy fringe and a small, button nose with an equally small face. His lips were pink and soft-looking and his eyes—currently wide with concern—were almond-shaped and adorable with a double eyelid on only one eye. The boy was small and thin, maybe a bit shorter than he was, but Jinyoung could tell that he wasn't some delicate little flower boy. It was almost like he'd done a lot of work and had a fair amount of cunning and wit.

⠀⠀Needless to say, Jinyoung was already enamored and was quite honestly speechless at the sight of this boy. What was his name again? Daehwi? Yeah.

⠀⠀"Um. . . Jinyoung? Are you okay?" Daehwi was asking. Jinyoung pulled himself out of his reverie and took his hand away from Daehwi's hold, awkwardly clearing his throat.  _Oh god, how red am I right now?_ He wondered as he rubbed his nape.

⠀⠀"Uh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay."  _Fucking hell, Jinyoung, why can't you be_  cool?

⠀⠀Woojin handed Daehwi his fallen basket while Jihoon squatted down next to him and laughed at him, pinching his cheek roughly.

⠀⠀"What's up, Jinyoung?" Jihoon asked slyly with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Jinyoung swore under his breath, knowing exactly what Jihoon was insinuating. He swatted Jihoon's hand away.

⠀⠀"Put a sock in it, Jihoon," Jinyoung huffed as he got back onto his feet.

⠀⠀He watched Daehwi revel in the grass and smiled. It was cute.  _Daehwi_ was cute. Wow, he suddenly didn't mind that Daehwi literally fell like an angel from the sky and landed on him. Why was he suddenly so happy from just watching Daehwi marvel at the simple things around him?

⠀⠀Jinyoung sighed as Woojin and Jihoon began to bicker like the in-denial couple they were. Why did they have to behave like that when Daehwi was watching? It would leave  _such_  a bad impression of them on him! Jinyoung wanted to shove them down a hill or something, but thankfully Jisung broke them apart.

⠀⠀It was embarrassing getting caught staring at Daehwi, but thankfully Woojin is much less perceptive of those sort of things and said nothing about it, only calling him an ass.

⠀⠀"You put a sock in it too, Woojin," Jinyoung shot back.

⠀⠀His chest felt warm as he heard Daehwi's bubbly laugh, and his heart was surely about to burst when Daehwi waved at him.

⠀⠀ _Wow, Mr. Longhorn Dragon_ , Jinyoung thought with a smile as he fell into step besides a chattery Daehwi.  _I almost forgive you for making us run for our lives if I get Daehwi in return_.

**Author's Note:**

> maybe this is a little better than my jinhwi oneshot?? who knows lol i hope you enjoyed this!! follow me on instagram @spookyhwi for multifandom shit idk


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